ledgment by this country of the independence of South-America ; but no document from the government has transpired to show its feelings on the occasion. The distance at which we are placed from Spain, and its distracted condition, are sufficient securities to us that we have no cause to fear trouble from that quarter on account of any just and fair measures which we may adopt towards our South American brethren. Ireland.-Ireland continues in a state of the greatest distress, notwithstanding the liberal endeavours made in England for its relief. A nation in distress, and that from a course of misgovernment or the effects of unnatural institutions, cannot be restored in a day, be the exertions for that purpose what they may. A reformation of abuses, aided by the healing hand of time, can alone furnish any adequate relief. :: DOMESTIC. Negro Plot in Carolina.-We have lately had information of a plot formed in Charleston, South Carolina, by the slaves, to rise upon the whites and it is generally reported, that it has been found to have been generated and fostered in some African Society for the ostensible purpose of mental improvement. Many of those who have been found accessary to the plot, have been remarkable for their intelligence and ostensible good qualities. Numbers of them have been tried by a summary process and executed, and the trials and disclosures of the plot continue to progress. At the escape of our southern brethren, many of whom we prize as among the richest jewels of our country, from a catastrophe so calamitous, so full of every ingredient which can render pillage, murder and pollution dreadful, we feel the deepest gratitude to Almighty God, to whom alone we would ascribe the deliverance. We hope that it will teach lessons, not of cruelty and violence, but of mercy and prudence which shall take effect on the minds of present and of future generations. At least we hope that the moral of this tragedy may not be perverted. In our remarks we take for granted that the information we detail above, as the origin of the plot, is true, having no means of better knowledge: we confess we desire further information as to its truth. We hope, in the first place, that our southern friends will not, from this occurrence, be led to think that the evil which they would guard against, can be stifled in the torrents of African blood, which it may be in their power, perhaps justly, to shed. If, in punishing the concerned in the present plot, they shall, through carelessness of the lives of their victims, through the excitements of present alarm, or that feeling of retaliating vengeance to which the heart of man is too prone, give an undue weight to imperfect testimony or make the sword of justice the dagger of revenge, they will kindle the flame of unextinguishable hatred and vengeance in their black population, and rather insure than prevent a recurrence of such crimes. Even where the criminals are clearly guilty, it should be remembered that by too frequent executions, men become less terrified at them, and come to consider death nothing more than what is VOL. IX. 24 termed in military phrase, a casualty. Executions thus frequent. although failing to excite their proper terror, will not the less arouse the hatred and revenge of those on whose minds it is intended to have effect. We hope, too, that what has happened, will not prejudice our southern friends against the education of their slaves.. It may be true, that the plot in question has had its origin in institutions for improvement of the mind. To enlighten the minds of this part of their population, without causing this light to shine in connexion with Christian instruction, and to beam through the openings made by the masters themselves, is but to awaken them to a sense of injury and to rouse them to a thirst of vengeance. The education of slaves should be accomplished by their masters' cares, and united indissolubly with religious instruction: so would habits of discipline, subordination and kindness grow with the dawning of their better knowledge, and be identified with it. We have been personally informed, by one who has practised it, that by pursuing this course, he has found his slaves better men, more faithful, more devoted to him, and elevated in every respect, so that the master fearlessly left them in trust of all he had. To shut out the light from the minds of slaves at the present day is impossible: the only choice is to give that light a true colour. In the present instance, although we know no particular fact on which to ground our confidence, we hesitate not to assert, that religious slaves, educated by their masters and treated by them with humanity, have remained faithful and unconnected with the plot, if indeed they have not been the means of its detection. - Slavery, indeed, does exist, and does draw with it its legions of evils : but perhaps the system of slavery may be the only system of discipline which admits of imparting that instruction which shall elevate its subjects to the condition which alone will make liberty a blessing: we speak of a slave population. By its restraints alone can the untutored savage be kept in such subordination as shall afford the opportunity of instruction and allow of training the flexible mind in the way it should go. And the masters must use it for this purpose: the slaves will else be irresistibly led to consider the enlightening of their minds and the means of their forcible emancipation as identical; and, collecting together in associations for this purpose among themselves, they will acquire a unity of design from their associating together, become bound together by that sympathy which the sense of common suffering imparts, and alienated from those who would keep them in darkness, but they should feel their wrongs, until a recurrence of plots like the present, in spite of executions ever so numerous and bloody, shall render it a contest of extermination between those who should, and we hesitate not to say might, possess for each other a generous regard, and a devoted fidelity. We are constrained by our limits to terminate our remarks, for the length of which our interest for both classes of actors in the present drama, far too powerful for expression, must be our only apology. July 29th. Seaman's Magazine. He maketh the storm a calm, so that the waves thereof are still. Then are they [sailors] glad because they be quiet; so he bringeth them unto their desired haven. Psalms. BEN, THE SAILOR. 66 On a Sunday afternoon, as the Sailors were proceeding from the Mission-house at Poplar, a Sailor was stopped with, "Halloo, my lad, we are just going to meet such as you. Come along my fine lad," (his jacket having been taken hold of.) What to do ?" said the Sailor. "A high meeting for Sailors. Come along, we shall be too late, and you will not be able to get in." (Oaths.) "What's it all for? is there any thing to drink?" "Ng, but something to eat." (Oaths.) "I've got no money-I've not received my wages yet; I shall have them to-morrow." "There's nothing to pay, my lad; I'll take care you shall go in, so come along." He returns a little way, and stops. (Oaths.) "But where are you going to take us? Is it to advance Seamen's wages?" "Good wages given-full wages paid, my lad, by the best of masters; come along, we shall all be behind.” He goes, and was taken to the chapel appointed for the Sailors' service, and remained the whole time astonished and confounded. At the conclusion of the meeting, the ususl mode of shaking hands with all Sailors took place, and they parted. Nothing was heard or seen of this Sailor till the 11th of November. After the service had concluded at Cotton-street, Poplar, he was observed pressing through the crowd with great eagerness to get out, and speak to the person who had stopped him in the street five months since. With a countenance the most cheerful, and both arms extended to shake hands, he cried, "I am glad to see you: thank God, I am arrived safe." He was invited to the Mission House. On his way, he related many deliverances, which he had experienced from God on his voyage home, which he never thought of in such a way before. He seemed deeply affected at the Lord's goodness to him. He took tea with the Sailors; and when they were going to start round the neighbourhood with Tracts, and to invite all they met to the evening prayer-meeting, he was asked, whether he would go on the mission, he replied, with great humility, "I am willing to do any thing for God.' He was supplied with Tracts, and not only started on the mission with the pious Sailors, but was very active and earnest. On the 18th November, as the Sailors were going down to Poplar, he was seen standing in the street neatly dressed in clean white trowsers, ready to go on the mission with his brother Sailors, and pick up wanderers in the highways. "I was waiting for you," he cried; "I thought you would not be long." Every sailor on the mission gave him a few Tracts, and he was again put in full commis sion; and proved his sincerity by the affection and ardour with which he pressed Sabbath-breaking Sailors to go with them to the House of God. 66 BEN'S SHIPMATES AT POPLAR. "I have always boarded in Poplar when I have arrived in this port," said he and I know many boarding houses; and some of my shipmates, with whom I sailed last voyage, are stopping at them. I will go and show you them, perhaps we may pick up some of my old messmates." Thank you, Ben. Come, my lads, let's go with him." As they entered the first boarding-house, they saw seven Sailors smoking, but quite sober. Well, shipmates, I see you are all enjoying yourselves after dinner-I am glad to see you all arrived safe after the late gales." "Thank you, sir," said they. Now, my lads, I expect every one of you will go with us." "Where to?" "A meeting for Sailors, my fine fellows. Come along, my lads, put on your jackets, and loose your topsails." (Several Sailors now passed the window on the road to the chapel.) "Look there, my lads, how they are all flocking to the Sailors' meeting. Bear a hand, down with your pipes, and make sail.” "What is it all for, master?" Ben, the Sailor. Why, Jarvis, it is a sermon to be preached to Sailors at Cotton-street Chapel, and you know how God has delivered us on our passage home; and we can't do better than go to the house of God, Jarvis." "It is all well enough, Ben, but I want to go to the London Docks when I have finished my pipe, to see an old shipmate, that I sailed with, that's just come in, or I would go with you." "Now, Jarvis, you know the hours of the docks, and if you get in, you will not be able to get out, and that's only an excuse; you had better come with us. Bill, will you go?" "I don't care, Ben, if I do. How long will it be before it is over?" "Not long, my lad. Come, all of you; we positively will not go without you. (Inquires a Sailor's name without a jacket, and learns it is Tom.) Come, Tom, get your jacket bent upon your yard arms, and come along with us." Tom starts and bends his jacket. Ben intercedes with the others, and at length they all come, except one; and be had no clean shirt, or he would have come. Ben takes them himself to the chapel, and, going down the street, points out to the pious Sailors another boarding-house. DRUNKEN SAM. A SAILOR Missionary enters-four Sailors sitting and smoking, one is tipsey. "Come, my lads, we are now come for all of you-we want all hands to go with us." The men stare-" Where must we go to ?" "To a Sailors' meeting; down with your pipes, and come away, my lads."(The drunken Sailor utters dreadful oaths.)-"We've had meetings enough in the gale, and now is the time to enjoy ourselves with grog and pipes."-" Where do you lodge, my lad "" At the sign of the Herrow, to be sure; and I have come over for them to have a pot with us."--"How many Sailors are boarding there with you?" "Five, and I make six; and every dog of us weathered the gale, by "Oh! don't take the name of God in vain; be grateful you have not made your last voyage-that you have not met a watery grave, and are not in hell." "Hell! hell was never made for Sailors." "You have a hell to escape, and a heaven to obtain, my lad." (Drunken Sailor reproved by one of the sober Sailors.) Ben comes into the boarding-house, knows two of the Sailors, invites them, explains what the meeting is, and they are willing to go. The drunken Sailor is asked, "What's your name, my lad?" "Sam, to be sure." "Come then, Sam, go with us to the meeting." (Oaths.) "I am like a I never go to church till I am carried." Sober Sailors all get up to go. They invite Sam, who will not go, and is displeased with them that they would not go with him to the Harrow public-house. Sam followed them till they came opposite the Harrow, then hails Tom, "Tom, are you going?" "Yes, Sam, come along, heave a head, my boy." "No," says Sam; "put about, here's the port, Tom, (pointing to the Harrow public-house.) Sam was smoking all the way down the street. Sam's arm was taken hold of by a person-" Come along, Sam, we shall all come back together." Sam cries, "Let me go and wash my hands and face." "No, no, come along-you'll do very well; there's no time to spare, we shall be too late." Sam walks after his shipmates, smoking. As soon as they got within sight of the chapel, (the Bethel Flag was then flying,) "Look, Sam, there's your standard to invite all Sailors, (pointing to the flag,) make haste." Sam flings away his pipe, mends his pace, enters the chapel, and was kindly received and put into a seat, and remained during the service with a number of Sailors that had been picked up in the same way by the Sailor Missionaries. After the service was concluded, the old custom of shaking hands, and asking them how they liked it, and inviting them to attend again, &c. took place; Sam in particular was spoken to: "I liked it well," said he, "and I know 'tis all right what was said; but, alas! I'm no scholar-I'm only a poor drunken Sailor." There was something inexpressibly mournful and impressive in poor Sam's remark. O England! how sadly hast thou neglected thy brave tars! Providing for heathens 3000 miles off, and suffering many a poor drunken Sam to perish at their own doors! Sam had sailed voyage after voyage, but "no man cared for his soul." The publican and the prostitute were the only persons on shore who concerned themselves about Sam, and this no longer than his money lasted. Is it thus a Christian country requites her Sailors! Ah! boast not of philanthropy, of Bible, and Missionary, and School Societies, while such mariners as swearing Ben and drunken Sam are suffered to land on your shores, and exclaim, "No man careth for my soul!" Ungrateful return! These Sams and Bens fought for your liberties; their best blood crimsoned o'er the decks of your ships to protect you, and your property, and your children, from the ruthless invading foe. The Almighty interposed their bodies between you and danger: they, and not the wood of your ships, were your walls; and do you now cast them off, and yield them entirely up to the publican and the prostitute, that they may "wander and perish ?" "O foolish people and unwise !" "Is this thy kindness to thy friends ?" Ah! talk not, publish not, that India is cruel, when the banks of the Ganges are strewed with parents offering their children to the crocodiles of the east! Call not young families in |